Born for Science – and Died Without Meaning

They were born in sterile laboratories, bred with one purpose: to contribute to new medical knowledge. Now, they are being euthanized en masse—not due to experiments, but because research funding is disappearing.

In a building in Morgantown, West Virginia, more than 900 laboratory animals were left behind when researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were abruptly dismissed.

Most of the animals were mice, but there were also rats and a few monkeys among them. About 300 of them were euthanized the following week.

A Wasted Life in a Cage

For the animals, it is a sudden end to a life they never had a chance to understand.

Many have already been subjected to treatments or experimental drugs and cannot be rehomed or released into the wild. “There are going to be many animals that are ultimately sacrificed—killed,” says Paul Locke, who researches animal welfare at Johns Hopkins University.

In several cases, entire research projects have been shut down before data could even be collected. For researchers, it means wasted work—for the animals, it means a death without meaning.

Care and Responsibility Being Dismantled

Laboratory experiments require more than equipment and ideas—they require care, expertise, and stable funding.

When care and research staff are laid off overnight, the animals are left without qualified care. In one instance, the responsible animal caretakers refused to leave the building until all animals were properly handled.

But not all animals can be saved. In some cases, private donations have rescued laboratory animals at the last minute, but such rescue operations are rare.

Experts are now warning that the fate of animals is increasingly left to chance and the “personal whims” of employees.

A Call for Consideration

Some see the crisis as an opportunity to rethink the use of animals in research. New technologies like organ-on-chip and 3D tissue models are emerging.

However, according to researchers, we are not yet ready to do away with live animals entirely in medical development. “We want to make ourselves obsolete,” says Naomi Charalambakis from the organization Americans for Medical Progress. “But we aren’t there yet.”

Until then, the animals continue to die—not for the sake of knowledge, but because no one can afford to keep them alive.

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